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I've always thought that 18th and 19th C. wrought iron belonged, with early lighting, in a separate category. Crafted largely of wrought and tinned iron and brass, the products of
early metalsmiths were designed for use but infused with personal style. They furnished
the kitchen, equipped the hearth, provided the light and made life in the colonies possible. Today these same pieces make life enjoyable as well. We'll bring you the best we can
find and we guarantee their authenticity.
Rare 19th C. Double Bullseye Oil Lamp
Pewter oil lamp by Roswell Gleason, Dorchester, MA, with double bullseye lenses, one marked “Patent,” neither chipped or cracked. 8” tall. Solder repair to tighten the base. Roswell Gleason, who began his career in 1821, was one of only a handful of pewterers who made lamps like this. He also made a lower cost single lensed version as well. Like primitive 18th C. water lamps, they were designed to cast a focused beam of light. Neither form is easy to find in any condition; double bullseye lamps are particularly rare. Excellent condition.
$1,650
Early 19th C. Double Heart Trivet
This is an extremely finely made Southeastern Pennsylvania trivet in the form of a slender heart. The crested handle terminates in a delicately worked second heart. This trivet was clearly made and finished by a whitesmith. Although Don Plummer’s book on the Sorber Collection includes no comparable form, p. 223 of Antique Iron shows a Pennsylvania trivet with a similar handle terminal. That piece is in the National Gallery of Art.
11½” x 4¼”.
$950
Signed Steel Hogscraper
Good whitesmithed ca. 1810-1830 hogscraper candlestick signed on the lift tab “Shaw Birm.” (Shaw was an 18th and early 19th C. maker of such sticks for the American market, working in Birmingham, England). 5½”H. Perfect for a sconce shelf.
$395
18th C. Adjustable Table Top
Candle Lamp
Rare 18th C. adjustable brass candle lamp with weighted base. These were portable work lights designed to provide local illumination for tasks like writing and needlework. Dovetailed shade, square post, candle arm and turned and solid-weighted base are all brass—highly unusual. Both candle arm and shade are movable to control the spread of light and adjust for the decreasing height of the candle as it burned. This is the Rolls Royce of the form. English. Ca. 1780-1800. 21” H.
$1,450
Signed New Hampshire Forged
Iron and Copper Utensils
Unusual 3-piece set of signed early 19th C. New England wrought iron cooking utensils. Ca. 1820-1850. In addition to the 17” two-tine roasting fork and an 18” shallow skimmer with a copper riveted hammered copper bowl, the set includes a second 12” two-tine fork that may have been used for cooking fowl or small game. It’s intriguing that although these are clearly the work of a blacksmith not a whitesmith, all three pieces are more delicately made than is usual. All three have formed rattail hanging loops and the shaft of the skimmer is decorated with two hearts. Perhaps most uncommon is the fact that not only are all three pieces signed by their maker, “F. Morse,” but include his location—“NH” for New Hampshire where this set was found. Compared with Pennsylvania-produced wrought iron, relatively few New England pieces are signed, and almost none include a location.
$1,100
Excellent Tinned Iron Wall Sconce
The radiating ridges of the sharply angled crest are crimped by hand, with hammer and stake, not by roller. Setting the candle socket further toward the front than typical, possibly to increase the spread of reflected light, may well account for the excellent condition of the tinning on the back plate. But the most striking aspect is the double column of reflecting bumps that graduate in size, a feature I’ve never seen before on a rectangular wall sconce. 9¾” H. Ca. 1800-1820.
$850
Late 19th C. Stoneware Candleholder
Scarce stoneware candleholder with variegated slip colors under alkaline glaze. The form may be derivative of early pottery fat lamps. In stoneware, candleholders of any age are regarded as uncommon. Southern states, and probably 19th C. North Carolina.
$295
Ca. 1820 New York Candle Sconce
Excellent early 19th C. sheet iron candle sconce with a reflecting back plate shaped like a candle flame, a scarce and distinctive form. The reflector edges are hand-crimped, and the drip pan is equally unusual in having been raised by the tinsmith on a drape mold and left uncrimped. Completely original and untouched. Found in the Hudson River Valley and probably made there in the first quarter of the 1800s.
$850
18th C. Leather & Iron Strike-A-Light
Excellent example of a late 18th/early 19th C. tinder pouch. A form said to have started in the Far East in the 1500s, it was a self-contained fire-making kit, with a piece of high carbon steel attached to a small leather pouch that held flint and tinder. Trade between Europe and the Far East brought this form of tinder pouch to popularity in Europe and England, where it remained in use up until the mid-19th C. Far Eastern examples are usually ornamented with chased brass emblems and corner bosses. English and Continental tinder pouches were generally more utilitarian and, like this one, used iron mounts instead of brass or silver. The steel striker is worn and the iron corner mounts are heavily oxidized, but a scrap of tinder remains in the pouch. For similar examples, see pp. 25-6 of John Caspall’s Fire and Light, and p. 168 of Early American Country Furnishings by George Neumann.
$325
Early 18th C. Wrought Iron
Door Knocker
Massive Queen Anne forged knocker that originally announced visitors at the front door of what was probably a fairly substantial house about 1710-1730. The 3¾” depth of the mounting bolt would suggest a door much thicker than would likely have been found on most homes of the period. Meticulously made, with scrolled terminals and filework molding on its face, the knocker shows classic Queen Anne curves and the bolt is actually a single piece of iron bent around the knocker’s crossbar, the ends forge-welded together then threaded to accept the securing nut. 8”H x 6” W. Variations of the form have been found in Huguenot areas of Maryland and in New Orleans, LA. Albert Sohn shows several versions of this knocker design on p. 49 of Early American Wrought Iron.
$1,350
Unique Signed 18th C. Brass Candlestick
Scholars and collectors have for more than a century speculated about the identity of the mysterious 18th C. English brazier who made the brass candlesticks signed on the underside of the base with only the initials “EK.” This curiosity was further spurred by the fact that a few of these signed sticks were constructed with an innovative candle socket with movable brass pins that allowed different sizes of candles to be used in the same candlestick. It took until 1998, however, for a British researcher to finally identify “EK” as Edward Kendrick, a candlestick and possibly key maker who lived and worked not in Birmingham where the English brass industry was centered, but variously at 3 Princes Street, 33 King Street, and 13 Hart Street, all Covent Garden, London. Using the earlier square dished base design from 1700-1725, this 1755-60 candlestick is probably one of the earliest of the signed Kendrick pieces. It is core-cast and retains both its original internal push-up ejector and seven of the eight original pins. 6½”H. An exceptional piece of lighting in every way. $465
19th C. Signed Pennsylvania
Cooking Fork
Classic Southeastern Pennsylvania two-pronged meat fork signed by Peter Treisch and made in Cumberland County ca. 1830. Forged of a single piece of steel, meticulously whitesmithed, signed, and decorated on the handle with four incised crescent moons, a somewhat more unusual design than the customary die-struck circles. Simple curved hanger hook. 16½”. Excellent condition.
$495
18th C. Wrought Iron Shutter Latch
That title doesn’t even begin to tell the story. This is forged art, elegant witness to the skill of an unknown 18th C. Pennsylvania blacksmith. Today called latches, in the 18th C. they were known as shutter dogs and in parts of New England and most of Pennsylvania they were used to hold wooden window shutters open during the day. Because shutters of the time were designed not only as decoration but window protection that could be closed in defense. They were heavy and early shutter dogs had to be substantial. This one is 9½” long—a double ended design with a scrollwork heart at one end, a solid heart at the other decorated by a classic southeastern Pennsylvania fylfot and a flattened 6” spike in the center that was driven either into the masonry or siding of the outer wall. Purchased ten years ago at the sale of the legendary Paul and Margaret Weld folk art collection. This is the most beautiful piece of shutter hardware I’ve ever seen. See Schiffer, Antique Iron, pp. 100-101 for an assortment of analogous if less fully developed pieces.
$895
Scarce Pair of 18th C.
Wrought Iron Pipe Tongs
Drawn iron, good tool marks, embellished only with spade-shaped terminals on the bowl scraper and hanger hook. An identical pair of tongs is illustrated as fig.1460 on p. 329 of George Neumann’s Antique Country Furnishings. The simplicity of form and upturned tamper suggest an American origin. 23” L. Ca. 1750-1800.
$1,450
The Complete Tinder Box
CA. 1780-1820 New England tinned iron tinder box, complete with candle, flint, steel striker, tinder and the original damper plate. And, in case your fire-starting skills desert you, a package of 19th C. matches in their original wrapping. A very carefully made tinder box with a tall candle cup and a lid dished to contain the melted tallow. 4 1/2" diameter, 3 1/2" to the rim of the candle cup.
$895
The Best 18th C.
Wrought Iron Rushlight
In terms of form, surface, condition and provenance, this rushlight is exceptional. From the arched tripod base with flattened and shaped penny feet to the restrained twistwork on the squared column and the perfect proportions of the counterweight candle arm with its integral drip pan, this rushlight stands alone. Even the small details, like the rim of the candle cup folded for strength and the distinctive squared collar at the base of the column are a cut above. A similar squared collar appears on a rushlight in Winterthur Museum, illustrated on p. 170 of Iron at Winterthur. Most American and almost all pieces of English wrought iron were painted (black) to retard rusting, and the remains of the black are visible beneath the current coat of worn mid-19th C. red paint. Ca. 1750-1810. 12”H. Ex-Colonial Williamsburg collection and their white “CW” is on the underside of the base.
$1,250
Unique Candle Lantern
18th/19th C. tinned iron candle lantern. The half-round body is pierced with a circular center medallion surrounded by piercework quarter fans, an unusual combination. Access to the interior is by a single door of possibly unique construction. It is divided into four genuine divided lights like an colonial-era window by heavy mullions that cross in the center. The four individual glass panes are original. In addition to the hanger ring atop the chimney, a hand grip is mounted on the rear. Below the handle there is a small tear in the metal between two piercings. 12½”H x 8”W x 5”D. Beautiful.
And magical when lit.
$2,550
Early Heart-decorated
Massachusetts Andirons
Wonderful pair of 18th C. wrought iron andirons decorated with hearts and shepherd’s crook finials with pigtail terminals. Even the nuts securing the hearts are carefully scalloped. Andirons of this period often have spit hooks for roasting meats before the fire and it’s possible that the shepherd’s crook terminals were meant to serve the same purpose as well as being decorative. 16”H. Albert Sonn in Early American Wrought Iron shows two pair of heart-decorated andirons, one from Ipswich, MA and the other from the Miles Standish house in Duxbury, MA. This may be significant, because these andirons came from an early home in Haverhill, MA.
SOLD
Diminutive 19th C. Onion Lantern
Excellent 8” candle lantern from the first half of the 1800s with original wire, hanger ring, cage, bayonet base and the best blown onion globe I can remember. Many early lanterns have 20th C. replacement globes; this one is absolutely original with pronounced swirling straws and good bubbles. Candle socket professionally restored to original form. The light it gives is beautiful.
$975
SOLD
